Are (Sociopaths) Going to Let John Die?
Overwhelming proof that we are governed, in large part, by egomaniacal sociopaths:
If Joe Lieberman or other senators came across John Brodniak writhing in pain on the sidewalk, they presumably would jump to help him and rush him to a hospital.
Ten days after the wedding, he was walking in his backyard carrying a neighbor’s dog — and he suddenly blacked out. That led, after rounds of CAT scans, M.R.I.’s and other tests, to the discovery that the left parietal lobe of his brain has a cavernous hemangioma. That’s an abnormal growth of blood vessels, and in John’s case it is chronically leaking blood into his brain.
With John unable to work, he lost his job — and his insurance coverage. Esther had insurance for herself and for her two children (from a previous marriage) through her job building manufactured homes. But she couldn’t add John to her plan because of his pre-existing condition.
Without insurance, John has been unable to get surgery or even help managing the pain. When he collapses or suffers particularly excruciating headaches, Esther rushes him to the emergency room of one hospital or another, but an E.R. can’t do much for him. One hospital has told them not to come back unless he gets insurance, they say.
Esther used up her family leave time to look after her new husband. “Then I went back to work, and he fell several times,” she said. “I told my boss that I had to quit. Taking care of John was more important than building someone else’s house.”
That meant that the couple had no income — and no insurance for anyone in the family, including the children.
I’ll leave the mass pull quoting at that, but Kristoff’s point is clear: because these poor people aren’t lobbyists, because they don’t come coughing and bleeding to fundraisers in DC, because they are just numbers (and what’s another few when we’re talking 50 million uninsured?) on a spreadsheet on the desk of a mahogany-lined office in a rich person’s dreamworld playland, certain senators feel no obligation to actually help people like John Brodniak.
Of course, they could absolutely change his life — pass universal healthcare, help him get insurance and the treatment that would cure his condition and save him. It just takes an aye vote. Concerned about cost? Tax a few of your buddies, or buy a few less weapons systems per year.
But that’d be too easy, too nice, too right. See no evil, it seems.
It just takes a moment’s worth of compassion to help 50 million people without insurance, and millions more underinsured; just a raise of the hand, and maybe a sacrifice of a cocktail party or two, to save the lives of the 45,000 Americans that die each year because they don’t have access to a fucking doctor, something these Senators of course make sure they have no problem getting for themselves.
But from these people (Joe Lieberman, Blanche WalMart Lincoln, Mary Landrieu and that toadie Ben Nelson), that’s just too much to give. If that’s not the definition of sociopath, I don’t know what is.
